Subj: The Royal
Convocation
The Royal Convocation
Posted on July 5, 2014, updated on July 3, 2014 by Skip Moen
For behold, the kings assembled;
they came on together. Psalm 48:4 ESV
Assembled – The kings marched together in
order to pass before the city of God. What was the result? They were
astonished, humbled, afraid. They fled in terror and confusion. No nation
stands before Him.
David’s declaration of the majesty of the Lord and the awesome
specter of His city is proper in this hymn of praise. But his use of the
word no‘adu teaches
us something more than the overwhelming power of God. This word, translated
“assembled,” comes from the root ya’ad.
It means, “to appoint, to betroth, to assemble, to meet, to set.” As you can
imagine, it is used quite often in personal relationships. One particular
derivation of the word is significant because of its implications for the apostolic writings (the
New Testament). That derivation is ‘edah,
meaning “congregation.” In Hebrew,‘edah describes
the self-designation of
the Qumran community. In other words, it is more than likely that this word was
used to describe the congregations of religious followers in first century
Israel including those who followed Yeshua HaMashiach. We must note that ‘edah is not just
any assembly. Because it comes from the root ya’ad, it implies that this assembly
is called for a
purpose. We also discover that it is first used in
Exodus 12:3 when God addresses the children of Israel. He calls them an ‘edah. One hundred and
forty five times this word describes God’s chosen “congregation” in the Tanakh,
and in one hundred and twenty seven of those occurrences the word is translated
as synagoge in
the LXX. That should make it clear. God’s Israel is an ‘edah.
How does this help us understand what Paul says, or Matthew, Mark
and James? Those men would have thought of a synagogue as an ‘edah (or as its
close synonym qahal).
They did not think that the religious assemblies of their time were somehow
brand new creations of Yeshua. In fact, they routinely attended services as
part of the ‘edah and
they constantly asserted that they practice their faith according to the
expectations of the ‘edah.
The Greek word ekklesia is
connected to the Hebrew ‘edah and qahal. If we want to
understand what these men said about the “church,” we must begin in Exodus
with ‘edah.
We can choose to start our thinking with ekklesia in Acts, but to do so is to
ignore everything the authors knew about the connection between ‘edah and ekklesia. In other
words, to put it as bluntly as possible, “church” is an invention of men. The
God of Israel calls His people ‘edah.
Perhaps this helps us understand why churches seem to be able to
invent their own worship patterns without regard to Scriptural foundations.
Perhaps we now recognize that the hierarchy of Rome has more influence on the
formation of the church than the Bible. Maybe this is why the church is
constantly evolving. It has no foundation in God. It stands on the work of
Jerome, Luther and Calvin. Attend if you wish. No harm there (hopefully), but
remember that you are not in the house of the Lord. You are visiting the
temples of Constantine.
Topical Index: church, ‘edah, qahal, Exodus
12:3, ya’ad,
assembly, Psalm 48:4
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